Survivors picket Allianz tournament

Holocaust survivors demonstrated on Monday morning outside the Old Course at Broken Sound Country Club in Boca Raton during the start of the Allianz Golf Championship.

Survivors held a banner and signs on Yamato Road and Broken Sound Boulevard denouncing the giant German insurance company for refusing to pay benefits on insurance policies their parents purchased in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.

Several other European insurers, including the Italian company Generali, also were mentioned by the survivors.

"A few thousand Holocaust survivors are in need. They have to live out their lives in misery," said Jack Rubin, 84, a Czech survivor who lives in Boynton Beach. "We got a certain amount from the Claims Conference but it's not enough."

Survivors have been prohibited from going to court against the European insurance companies. And the State Department under presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush has opposed the idea, saying it would undermine a 2000 reparations agreement with Germany. The agreement led to $300 million in insurance payments being made to survivors and their heirs.

Rubin said he hopes survivors will have more success with new Secretary of State John Kerry. Survivors also lobbied Vice President Joe Biden for help, Rubin said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to work something out."

Sam Dubbin, a Coral Gables attorney who has represented survivors in their quest to recover money owed them from Allianz and other European insurance companies, said three U.S. Congresses have considered legislation allowing survivors to sue the companies. Last year, Congressional leadership chose not to let the legislation come up for a vote, he said.

Dubbin said survivors have the support of prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives including Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Freshman Congresswoman Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, also is on record as being in favor of legislation to help survivors, Dubbin said.

There were more survivors demonstrating last year, said Moric Jusovic, 83, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary who lives in Delray Beach. "Unfortunately, every year you look around and there are some missing."

Empty chairs along the curb had the names Si Frumkin, Paul Phillip Weiss, George Kertesz and Susie Marshak — survivors who died recently — taped to them.

"They're waiting until people die out," Norman Frajman, 83, a Polish survivor who lives in Boynton Beach said, referring to Allianz and other European insurance companies that survivors say owe them money.

Survivors will demonstrate at noon on Feb. 10 at the same Boca Raton location.